César Franck was a composer of the Romantic era, born in Liège, Belgium in 1822, who became a French citizen and spent most of his career in Paris, serving as organist at Sainte-Clotilde from 1858 and teaching at the Paris Conservatoire from 1872. His principal output includes organ works, symphonic compositions such as the Symphony in D minor, chamber music including the Violin Sonata and Piano Quintet, keyboard pieces, and choral works. He died in Paris in 1890 from complications of pleurisy and pericarditis following a street accident involving a horse-drawn trolley earlier that year.

Often described as the greatest composer of organ music after Bach, Franck revitalized the French symphonic and chamber music traditions and pioneered the use of cyclic form, in which thematic material recurs across a work’s movements. Through his teaching and compositional example he influenced a generation of French composers, including Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, and his music remains a cornerstone of the late-Romantic French repertoire.

Compare recordings piece by piece — 2 works of César Franck with more than one performance on the site →

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A9sar_Franck